Dark Horizons 54

Dark Horizons 54, about to be sent out to members in our March 2009 mailing, is filled to the brim with goodiesâ€¦ Our stories and poems range from the fantastical medieval past to the astonishing worlds of the future, while our articles take us from the artist's studio to the forests of London, stopping off at Mythago Wood and Twombly Town along the way, not to mention a fleeting visit with the Drenai.

The Day of the Carnival, The Day After and Mirror Magic, by Kristine Ong Muslim

Interview

Roots of the Writer: Robert Holdstock, by Jan Edwards

Articles

â€œA Man Disguised as an Ostrich, Actuallyâ€, by Mike Barrett

Inside Cliveâ€™s Covers, by Dominic Harman

The Hunt for Gollum: Production Diary, by Brian Lavery

David Gemmell: a Fan’s Introduction, by Gareth Wilson

Plus: the editor writes about the re-Kindling of his love for the Rocket eBook; a real-live letter to the editor; one man’s fantastical financial gamble on himself; and a marvellous amount of contributor information, which is reproduced below.

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Mike Barrett discovered imaginative literature at school, when someone lent him a copy of Ray Bradburyâ€™s Golden Apples of the Sun. He first contributed to Dark Horizons in the 1970s with an article on M.P. Shiel, which was followed by several more before the end of the decade. Recently he has taken to writing again, and is a member of the SSWFT amateur press association. He is also a regular contributor to The New York Review of Science Fiction and has had pieces published in Wormwood, Fantasy Commentator, and Studies in Fantasy Literature. He lives in Kent and works in the pensions industry in London.

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Skadi meic Beorh is a writer and editor presently living in Highland Park, an Edwardian borough of Pittsburgh. He has authored the novel To Be Saved From Witches (Cosmos Books, October 2009) as well as the story collection Always After Thieves Watch and the dictionary Pirate Lingo. Too, he serves as Contributing Editor for The Willows and as staff writer for romance journal Twoday Magazine. More can be found online (http://skadimeicbeorh.wordpress.com).

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Peter Coleborn joined the BFS in the 1970s, in time to miss out on Fantasycon 1, but has attended every one since, and has acted on the organising committee in numerous roles (including chair) on numerous occasions. He has also sat on the BFS committee (again including chair), edited and produced the Newsletter (aka Prism), Dark Horizons, Masters of Fantasy, the Fantasycon Souvenir Book and Chills. He created the Alchemy Press, publishing the award-winning Where the Bodies Are Buried by Kim Newman. At conventions he is usually burdened with an SLR and accoutrements.

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Brendan Connell was born in Santa Fe, New Mexico, in 1970. He has had fiction published in many magazines, journals and anthologies, including McSweeneyâ€™s, Adbusters, Leviathan 3, Strange Tales and Fast Ships, Black Sails. His first novel, The Translation of Father Torturo, was published by Prime Books in 2005; his novella Dr. Black and the Guerrillia was published by Grafitisk Press the same year. His collection Metrophilias will be published by Better Non Sequitur in mid 2009. His novel The Architect will be published by Creating Chaos in June of 2009. His blog is at:Â http://brendanconnell.wordpress.com.

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Jan Edwards is a long-standing member of the BFS, a former chair, treasurer, DH and chapbook editor, and FantasyCon organiser/committee member, though not necessarily all at once. She is also a writer, herbalist, ceramic sculptor and reiki master.

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Ross Gresham teaches at the US Air Force Academy, and lives in Colorado Springs.

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Dominic Harman turned professional in 1997 and after a decade in the business still feels heâ€™s only just started. Heâ€™s worked for major publishers around the world, producing art for books by Clive Barker, H.G. Wells, Philip Pullman, Naomi Novak and George R.R. Martin.

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Ian Hunter has moved into the 20th century with his website,Â www.ian-hunter.co.uk. One day he hopes to make it into the 21st century, if he can keep the kettle boiling long enough.

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Andrew Knighton lives and occasionally writes in Stockport. He has had stories published in various magazines, including Alienskin, Flash Me and Aoifeâ€™s Kiss. Watch out for two more of his stories in early 2009: â€œSecond Skinâ€ in Ballista and â€œOur Man In Herrjeâ€ in Jupiter.

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Brian Laveryâ€™s experience spans numerous independent film and theatre projects in practically every type of crew role. He works full-time in television production and is also involved with the Creative Cloud Collective (www.underovertheclouds.org).

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Kristine Ong Muslimâ€™s publication credits and recent acceptances include more than 600 poems and stories in more than 300 publications worldwide. Her work has appeared in Aberrant Dreams, Abyss & Apex, Dark Recesses, Dark Wisdom and Tales of the Talisman, and she received Honorable Mentions in Yearâ€™s Best in Fantasy and Horror as well as nominations for the Pushcart Prize and Rhysling Award and won Samâ€™s Dot Publishingâ€™s James Award for genre poetry twice.

Owen is an award winning designer and illustrator, occasional lecturer and typographic geek with unfulfilled artistic intentions. He takes inspiration from the process, be it printing, drawing, painting or digital, and from subverting the dogmas and rules of design. HeÂ lives by the sea in Brighton.

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Mathew F. Riley was the winner of the BFS Short Story Competition 2009 (the prize-winning story will appear in New Horizons 3). The Mole People by Jennifer Toth provided him with background information and ambience for this story. He would also like to acknowledge those interviewed in her book. He has adapted some of their words for the purposes of the story; one in particular provided him with its title. Also, he would thank Rick Kleffel and Kealan Patrick Burke for their advice and comments.

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Jim Steel has stories in the current issues of Cutting Teeth, Polluto, Premonitions, Twisted Tongue and Beeswax. More should turn up soon in Supernatural Tales and Arkham Tales. Heâ€™s the reviews editor for Interzone, and he also reviews for Vector, The Fix, The Zone, VideoVista, Soundchecks and Whispers of Wickedness. He is thinking of getting a coffee sponsorship.

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Ally Thompson is a prolific neo-surrealist artist whose work has graced many galleries and homes and private collections in America and Europe since he graduated from Glasgow School of Art in 1980.

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Douglas Thompson won the Grolsch/Herald New Writing Award in 1989, and second prize in the Neil Gunn Writing Competition in 2007. His stories have been widely published in magazines and anthologies, most recently Ambit, New Writing Scotland, and Subtle Edens. â€œTelemuraâ€ is from his first novel/collection Ultrameta which will be published in August 2009 by Eibonvale (seeÂ www.glasgowsurrealist.com/douglas).

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Gareth Wilson runsÂ Wolfshead, a website that aims to be the â€œultimate webtionary to all things Gemmellâ€. There readers will find a map of the Drenai world, a Drenai Family Tree (connecting nearly all the Drenai novels), sample chapters from David Gemmellâ€™s books (with the publisher’s permission, of course) and lots more.